Why? Because
by steph211
Summary: EMISON SHORT. A young Alison convinces the girls to play a game during their sleepover that ends up ruining her friendship with Emily...or does it?
1. Chapter 1

Alison and the girls entered the Hasting's barn excited for another sleepover. They had spent all day together but it seemed like they could never get enough of each other. Alison sat down on the couch and Emily followed eagerly. Alison smiled to herself for a brief second, knowing the reason that Emily sat next to her was because Emily had feelings for the blonde. Emily's feelings were mutual, but Alison could never admit it. She didn't want people to know she was gay, or whatever it meant to have feelings for another girl. Deep down she wanted to tell Emily the truth and start a relationship with her. It would be nice to finally love someone and be cared for, and she knew Emily would do everything to make her happy, but it just wasn't possible, right? Spencer and the girls sat around the two waiting for someone to talk. Alison figured as ring-leader she would step up- she always did anyway. "Do you guys want to play a game?" she asked. The girls looked around at each other and nodded their heads in agreement. Spencer looked at Ali concerned. The blonde never offered to play games and when she did, her intention was always to win.

It was something the two had in common. They both enjoyed competition. Actually, enjoyed is a bit too tame of a word. To say they craved competition and fed off of it would be a little more accurate. Spencer looked to Alison "what kind of game Ali?" Alison smiled her natural and typical Alison DiLaurentis smile. Emily couldn't help but blush at Ali's beauty. "It'll be fun Spence, no one wins and no one loses, that's the beauty of it." Spencer couldn't help but slightly be disappointed. How could she enjoy a game she couldn't win? Where was the fun in that? Aria smiled, "that sounds like fun. What's it called?"

"Why, because." Alison chimed in. Hanna looked over at Alison in confusion. "Because what Ali? You're not making any sense." Alison's blonde curls fell back off her shoulders as Ali giggled at Hanna's question. "That's the game silly. It's called 'why, because'." Emily looked over at Ali interested. "How does it work?" Ali loved when Emily spoke. She had shut her down many times and always felt guilty about it, but she loved hearing the brunette's voice. Maybe Emily would be more talkative if she didn't fear being rejected by Alison every time. Ali felt her chest tighten and took a deep breath before explaining the game.

"We each get a piece of paper, and we write a question starting with why on one side, and on the back we write an answer starting with because. So for example, I could write: why did Hanna just eat that cookie, and on the back I would say because Spencer stayed up all night studying. They don't have to answer each other, it just has to be funny." Hanna hid her head when Ali said her name, wiping crumbs off her shirt, while Spencer almost smiled in acknowledgement of the fact she did indeed stay up studying the night before.

The girls looked a little unsure of the game. Spencer finally spoke up. "And then what?" Alison looked over. "Well we put our pieces of paper in the bowl and then we each pick. If I start I'll read my why question I picked and the person next to me will read their because. And then they read their why, and the next person goes and so on. It gets really fun. Especially when we start to share secrets." Alison smiled an almost evil smile.

Hanna "I don't know Ali. I don't want anyone to get mad." Alison chose her words carefully, while placing a hand on Hanna's shoulder. "No one will know what you wrote, and we're all friends Han. Friends tell each other everything right?" The girls all looked at each other and nodded, knowing that each of them had a secret they didn't want to come out tonight. Ali stood up interrupting every girl's thoughts. "I'll grab some pens. Spence, can you grab some paper?" Spencer stood up and followed Ali towards the other side of the barn. Ali looked at Spencer "Afraid any secrets are going to come out tonight?" Spencer eyed the blonde down. Did a day ever go by where Spencer didn't want to secretly hit Ali? Spencer ignored her and walked towards her friends. Alison was disappointed she didn't get her typical rise out of her usually wired friend.

The girls started writing their question and answers on their paper. After a few minutes of silence and a few stray giggles; mostly from Hanna, the game started. Emily suggested Ali start and Ali smiled at how obviously Emily was trying to flirt with the blonde. If only she knew…"Okay, let's see.." Ali stuck her hand in the small bowl and picked out a piece of paper, she smiled at the innocent question, knowing already she had chosen Emily's. She knew the brunette's handwriting by heart. "Why did I get a C on the reading assignment?" The girls looked around trying to figure out who's question was asked. Ali broke their silence "wow you guys sure know how to get crazy with your questions." Alison didn't mean for it to sound rude but she noticed Emily's poor attempt at trying to pretend she wasn't a little hurt by Ali's statement.

Ali quickly turned to Spencer trying to get Emily's sad puppy face out of her head. "Your turn Hastings." Spencer reached into the bowl and unfolded a small piece of paper. "Because Jenna sleeps with her freak step brother." Ali chuckled a little too loud at her own answer she had written. The girls looked at Ali. "What? It was funny. See that's the kind of stuff that makes the game interesting. What's the question Spence?" Alison's stomach turned slightly hoping that her question wasn't going to be too harsh.

"Why do you think Emily hasn't had sex with Ben yet?" Spencer looked over towards Emily apologetically. Emily's bronze skin immediately turned red. God she was so cute when she was flustered, Ali thought. Emily kept opening and closing her mouth unsure if she should respond. Aria decided it would be best for her to pick and quickly answered Spencer's question. "Because Sean has the dreamiest eyes." Alison rolled her eyes. "Wonder who wrote that, Han." Ali thought out loud.

Aria turned the paper over. "Why does Ali call Lucas Hermie?" Alison glared at Hanna. She was almost proud of Hanna for asking a somewhat daring question, but was annoyed Hanna felt the need to step on Alison's toes. The game continued on for a few rounds when Alison started to grow bored of these innocent questions.

"Okay, we need to adjust this. Everyone write one question they want to be answered tonight, and one secret you know about someone in the room." Alison's idea was way too intense for these girls and they all knew it. "I don't know if that's a good idea Ali" Aria looked very concerned. She really didn't want to have to answer questions about her parents separating and her cheating father. "Yeah I don't know Al, this seems like a little much" Spencer added. Spencer had secrets of her own, and their names all happened to be boyfriends of her sister Melissa.

"Why are you guys spazzing out? You don't wanna share secrets? Isn't that what we do?" Alison was getting annoyed. Emily shook her head and then finally spoke up. "I don't think it's that Ali, I think we just don't want to hurt each other." Alison looked over at Emily. She felt bad Emily wanted to make everyone happy. "Fine, then do you want to write a secret about yourself?" The girls simultaneously all yelled "no!" Ali smiled.

"Good. Then we'll write one secret we know about someone else. I promise you'll all feel better after we're done." Ali took her pen and stared at the paper. She knew crippling secrets about all the girls. Secrets that would ruin their lives. Hanna's bulimia, that coincidentally, Ali had started. Spencer cheating with Ian, Aria's parents, and Emily being gay. It all was a matter of who's life she felt like changing tonight.

The girl's took a lot longer to write their responses then Ali expected. After a while they all handed their papers into the middle. It was obvious there was a lot of tension in the room. "Since this was your great idea why don't you go first Ali?" Spencer offered. Alison eagerly reached for a paper. "Why does Ali want us to play these dumb games?" Alison laughed. "Because I love to torture you all. And the secret is…" Alison trailed off. She already knew this secret but she felt a lot worse reading it off the paper. Emily, noticing Alison's sudden change in attitude looked over. "What's wrong Ali?" Alison shook her head and turned to the girls. "Uh, it says I know what Hanna does after she eats." The room went silent and all eyes turned to Hanna.


	2. Chapter 2

Alison swore she could feel Hanna's heartbeat from across the couch. She'd never seen Hanna this embarrassed. Hanna started to cry when Ali realized she needed to fix this. "Han, it's okay. We're here for you. You don't need to do that. You're beautiful. You know we love you no matter what." Aria's tiny voice was comforting and so were her hugs, but Ali didn't think this was going to do the trick. She looked at Hanna sternly and responded. "Han, you can't keep doing this. You'll end up in a hospital eating through a tube, or you'll end up dead. If you really want to loose the weight we'll help. But you need to promise us you won't do it again." Hanna shook her head trying to speak through her tears. Alison was not a feelings type of girl. She was way more into tough love and she knew that's what Hanna needed right now.

After the whole Hanna ordeal, Spencer went through her emotional breakdown and interrogation as to why she and Ian made out. This of course was all thanks to Alison's fun fact. Spencer knew Ali wrote it and she was furious, but she did feel better talking to her friends about it. Aria's nightmare had been avoided only to be substituted with questions about Noel Khan. When Aria's boy interrogation was over she looked over to Ali and mouthed a quick but meaningful "thank you." Alison smiled and winked over at her petite friend. She didn't know why she decided to let Aria off the hook, but she felt like punishing Byron Montgomery would be a lot more fun than poor little Aria.

Alison was interrupted by a complete and total silence in the room. The girls had been talking just seconds ago. She wasn't entirely paying attention but she knew it was Emily's turn to read a secret. She felt sick to her stomach when she saw Emily's face. Emily wiped a tear from her face quickly and crinkled her paper up. Hanna looked over. "Em what's wrong?" Emily stood up ready to leave. "I don't want to play anymore." Alison looked confused. None of the other girls even had an idea that Emily was gay and Ali didn't want to out her beautiful best friend, so she wasn't exactly sure what was upsetting Emily. Ali reached over for the paper and was stopped by a strong hand. "Don't. Did you write this? Why would you do that Ali? What have I ever done to you?" Alison was stunned by her quiet friend's sudden change in tone. She had never seen Emily this angry before, but she really didn't know what the paper said. Emily got up and walked away. Alison looked at everyone. "What did it say?" Even when Alison wasn't threatening someone she still was terrifying. The girls all shock their heads scared of Alison's furious nature.


	3. Chapter 3

They watched Ali follow the tall brunette out the door. "Emily wait!" Emily quickly turned with tears running down her face. "No! I can't believe you Ali. Why would you write that? How could you do that to me?" Alison was heartbroken seeing how upset Emily was. She wanted to know what was on that paper and who wrote it so she could murder them. "Em, I don't know what your talking about. I didn't write anything about you." Emily shook her head in disbelief. "Sure Ali. I'll just believe you, like I always do, and then you can go and hurt me again. You could have wrote anything, but you wrote that."

Alison knew Emily had seen her bad side before and Alison had never unleashed it on poor Em in the past, but tonight Ali felt her body shake in rage. "My secret was about Spencer, Emily. I didn't write about you. I don't even know what the paper says!" Emily looked confused. Alison grabbed the small paper from Emily's tight grip and began to unfold it. She read the paper a few times in her head.

 _Emily is gay. And she loves Ali._

She couldn't stop herself from rereading it. She wanted to smile and kiss Emily right there but she knew she couldn't. This would be the worst time for that. Emily looked at Alison. "Em, I didn't write this. Is it true?" Ali knew it was, and quite frankly she knew that Emily knew too, but she wanted her friend to say the words out loud. "I-I don't know. Maybe." Emily was confused. She ached to tell Alison the truth, but she didn't want to disgust her. "Em, you know that if it was true, I wouldn't care right? None of the girls would. We love you no matter what. If you like girls it's okay."

Emily was crying harder than she would ever admit, but she finally looked at Ali and said "I like you Alison, as more than a friend." Alison's stomach churned. She couldn't help herself. She grabbed the bronze girl's face and passionately kissed her. She was so turned on by those words. Emily pulled away confused. "Ali?"

"Em, I like you too." Emily shook her head in disbelief. There was no way that Alison DiLaurentis just said this. Surely she was in some sort of sick nightmare. Alison was straight. She was the queen bee of Rosewood high. She couldn't fall for someone like Emily. Alison wanted a night in shinning armor, not some tall swimmer chick in a jumpsuit. "No you don't Ali. You've told me before. Our kisses were just for practice. You made it very clear." It was true. Alison had said that. She regretted it the second it came off her lips but she had said it. "I know I've said horrible things to you before, but I was scared Em. I've felt this way for a long time."

Emily could not register the words coming out of the blonde's mouth. She couldn't believe Alison felt the same way. She leaned in to kiss Ali when Ali moved away from Emily. She turned to look behind Emily's shoulder. "Did you get that?" Emily turned around furiously. Ian walked out of a bush holding a video camera. "Of course I did." He laughed. "I like you Ali" he mocked. Emily closed her eyes trying to hide how hurt she was but she couldn't seem to disappear.


	4. Chapter 4

"No! No!" Emily's screaming woke Ali up immediately. She rolled over to look at her beautiful fiance. She hated seeing her in pain. "Em" she shook her mermaid's shoulder to wake her. "It was a bad dream baby. Wake up, it's okay." Emily jumped up in a panic. She was crying and terrified and angry. "It was just a dream mermaid. You're okay." Ali kissed Emily's forehead and wiped away the tears streaming down her face. Emily's puppy dog face stared back at Ali. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Emily shook her head. "We were in Spencer's barn, and we were playing a game…" Alison looked intently at the brunette. She didn't like where this was going. "And…we were younger, and I told you I liked you and you told me you liked me back….but then Ian came out with a camera like I had just been punked and everyone was laughing at me….it was terrible."

Alison's heart broke. She thought for a second that it sounded like something her old self would do. She needed to remind herself that that was way long in the past and she would never think about hurting her mermaid or any of her friends like that again. "Baby, you know I love you more than anything right? I will never hurt you like I used to." Alison meant it. Emily smiled at her beautiful soon-to-be-wife, "I know baby. I know." Alison always loved how Emily saw the best in her. "Try to go back to sleep Em. Tomorrow's kind of a big day." Emily laughed and kissed Ali. "I love you Mrs. DiLaurentis-Fields" Alison smiled at her fiance's comment.

"That has a nice ring to it" Ali replied.

"Well you better get used to it" Emily chirped back.

Alison finally leaned away from their kiss and stood up. Emily watched as Ali waltzed over to the large balcony window and opened the curtains revealing a well-lit Eiffel tower. Alison stared out to the tower. "You and me Em, in sweet Paris". Emily walked over and wrapped her arms around Alison. If this was any indication of how their future was going to look, Emily knew she was the luckiest girl alive.


End file.
